RADIO
Over the past few days, hidden behind the Adrian Peterson trade speculation and Greg Hardy signing with Dallas, perhaps the biggest storyline of the young NFL season has been flying under the radar. Is Philip Rivers being actively shopped by the Chargers?
While Rivers has said that he wishes to stay with San Diego and Chargers GM Tom Telesco has publicly stated that the team would "definitely" work on a new deal for the veteran quarterback after his current one expires after this season, anything said publicly can be taken with a grain of salt.
Should Rivers be traded the Chargers would need to draft a replacement for him in the upcoming draft, meaning that he would likely be traded for a first-round pick. Logical landing spots for Rivers would include the Browns, Texans, and Titans.
Tennessee would make the least sense out of the three logical landing spots, however a legitimate top-ten quarterback would make the Titans a contender for a playoff spot in a very weak AFC South. The Titans would be very unlikely to forfeit the second overall pick, so a bundle of a couple high draft picks could be enough to acquire Rivers, if the Chargers are desperate enough to move on.
Cleveland trading for Rivers makes sense, plus the good news for the Chargers would be that if the Browns were reportedly willing to give up the 19th overall pick to acquire Sam Bradford, imagine what they would give up to acquire Rivers. While Cleveland would likely overpay for him, it would be a win for the Browns getting a quarterback that isn't terrible.
The Browns aren't necessarily making a good move by acquiring Rivers, considering Cleveland has work to do on both sides of the ball, however this is a team that drafted a 28-year old quarterback in the first-round, so maybe trading for a known commodity is better than letting the Browns draft gurus butcher another high draft pick.
The Texans have to be the most logical trade partner in this scenario. Houston has a good defense and an average offense, which Rivers knows how to play in all too well, and most importantly have a mid first-round pick they could use as a bargaining chip. Houston could just save valuable time and move on from Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett and Tom Savage. They could contend immediately in an awful division with a veteran quarterback in Rivers, who threw for over 30 touchdowns in each of the last two seasons.
Houston could give San Diego the 16th overall pick, which would put the Chargers in position to take UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley, or compound the 16th and the 17th overall picks along with a couple more assets to trade up with Tennessee and take either Winston or Mariota with the second overall pick. The Titans would be compelled to take two mid first-round draft picks and whatever else the Chargers offer and roll the dice with Zach Mettenberger.
While it's unclear as to whether or not Rivers stays with San Diego, there's no denying that he is one of the most underrated quarterbacks in the entire league since coming into the NFL in 2004. As a starting quarterback, he has only had a losing record once in his eleven-year career. He can be too inaccurate and throw a fair amount of interceptions at times, however his completion percentage since 2008 has been hovering around 66-67%. Rivers is a veteran quarterback who, if placed on a team with an above average defense, could go far into the playoffs. Any team that trades for him would become significantly more of a threat in 2015.
